SNES Game of the Week 118 - Clock Tower

[excelsior]

Week #13 - Final Fantasy IV


  

The Crusade for the Crystals. Get ready for the most challenging role-playing adventure ever with Final Fantasy IV which arrived on the SNES across Japan and North America in 1991. 

In the kingdom of Baron, powerful airships rule the skies. At the head of this elite fighting force is Cecil, Captain of the Red Wings, as our adventure begins, Cecil and his squadron are ordered to steal a powerful crystal from a rival kingdom. Upon their return, Cecil questions the King's orders and is stripped of his command. To prove his loyalty, he must slay a dreadful monster and deliver a mysterious package to a neighbouring town. But when the package explodes, destroying everyone, Cecil and his friend Kain vow to fight the King's dark forces. Will you be able to save the world from their evil plan to control the crystals?

  

  

[excelsior]

I really enjoyed Final Fantasy IV. The storytelling is no doubt dated but is a notable progression from what came before, with your party changes dictated by the plot which keeps everything feeling fresh as it moves at a nice pace. The game has a real epic adventure feel as it whisks you off into surprising locations. Visuals aren't as big an enhancement as they perhaps could have been though the soundtrack benefits a lot from the move to the SNES in my opinion. The later SNES entries do more to differentiate themselves but I really appreciate that Final Fantasy IV sticks to the basics in terms of it's gameplay and presentation.

Ranking - A

[dsparil]

IV is great. It has a tight design that most of the other games don't have from the fixed party. Square really went all in on the SNES, and it's still such a high point despite being such an early game. The English language version does mess up the early goings a bit and that's really my only ding against it. The DS remake is pretty good too. Hopefully I'll get back to replaying the pre-XIII FFs as I've been doing on and off since 2019. Exactly one year ago Wednesday, III thoroughly derailed my plans to polish off the first six leaving me with just the SNES trilogy.

A

[spanky]

Final Fantasy II was an incredibly influential game to me. I had read about RPGs in Nintendo Power and other magazines. But they seemed too obtuse to my young mind...You choose what to do from a menu? There's a bunch of numbers? I eventually rented this on a whim and was completely blown away by the presentation. There was an evolving story just like a book or a movie. The characters felt like real people - they argued! They fell in love, they cared for one another and made dramatic sacrifices! Still...I found the game very intimidating and didn't play it again after the initial rental. I would return to this after playing games like Secret of Mana and Super Mario RPG which were my actual gateway drugs to this genre. 
 
It has the least customization of any FF game to this point but that works in it's favor. All the challenges are made with your current party makeup in mind and the battle abilities of each party member accurately reflects their character. Child Rydia is terrified of using fire spells due to the destruction of her village, Edward is sort of a wiener so he runs away when low on health, Tellah is very old and his stats actually go down upon level ups to simulate his aging. Many other FF games treat the characters as having interchangeable strengths and skills and that's never sat well with me.

The game actually does a good job of introducing new characters constantly. It does rely maybe a little too heavily on having characters leave your party via dramatic sacrifice (only for almost everyone to return perfectly healthy at the endgame). The ATB system makes its debut here and while it still needs some work (you can't pass a turn and come back to that character) it is still very forward thinking and fun. The next few games would actually ditch the idea of more powerful spells and attacks needing a larger charge up time. Also neat is that this is first (and only?) game across the entire series that allows for a 5 person battle party.

The SNES now allows the battles to take place on an actual backdrop instead of fighting in a void and there's loads of mode 7 effects. It looks nice enough but a bit simple to my eyes nowadays. The soundtrack on the other hand is phenomenal, one of my favorite Final Fantasy soundtracks with some blood pumping battle themes and an overworld theme that just has a bit of melancholy to it.

The US version is noticeably easier and missing content but I wouldn't say it's the worst way to play the game either. Most of the cut abilities aren't particularly useful and the simplified item list isn't the worst thing in the world. The translation is very simple and missing details but I don't think it's bad for the era either. 

Let's give this a high A. I would give it an S but I can think of a few more RPGs I would place above it.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Didn't play this back in the day (first proper FF experience was 7 though I played 6 a bit before that), and my impression is of the fan translation by J2E. Story-wise it holds up pretty well mainly as a farce, it has a good pace to it and is usually entertaining with some memorable scenes like the airship chase, Edge's parents fight scene and going to the moon. Compared to what came before there's a better red thread throughout and characters are a bit more fleshed out, which was pretty impressive even if it doesn't seem that special nowadays or perhaps even to some contemporary PC RPGs. 

Gameplay-wise the ATB system wasn't quite there (though it can be modded to display the bar at least), random encounters are too frequent, moving around is kinda slow combined with a decent amount of dead space (but battles pretty fast thankfully), the interface kind of archaic, there's some backtracking out of dungeons and the gameplay balance gets weird at times with enemies doing multiple attacks in a row. I have some other pet peeves regarding the class and party forming mechanics but it could be argued they make for a more effective story so it's kind of a wash. 

The music is sometimes great, a big leap forward technically of course but it also helped make various tracks more expressive emotionally. Sprite animation is pretty nice too, I mean there are much later WRPGs that don't really do basic "physical acting" (can't think of the right word) during dialogue at all, though I'm not gonna give the lack of battle animations for enemies a pass considering the PS series.

I'll give it a C, which is pretty high for an earlier RPG coming from me. In case I haven't said it before that translates to about a 7/10 for me.

[Snake]

Rank A for me.

I remember the day I got this game.  After spending the day holed up at my dad's shop, we went down the street to Game Dude in North Hollywood. The place  still stands, a large warehouse shop that buys/sells/trades video games and video game accessories. He gave me my choice of Christmas present, and it was going to be for Final Fantasy II, SNES.  Played it non-stop for a week straight, during the holidays. And it felt really bittersweet that it finally ends.  It was so much fun, and so involving, I wish there was more and more.  

I loved the fixed jobs, the required strategy for your given party.  The music soundtrack was such a big step up from the NES offerings.  So beautiful, melodic, catchy mood makers.   I was in love with watching the spells and the summons getting cast.  So much to explore.  This game stood as my favorite SNES game thus far, to that point in time... during the age of Super Mario World, Contra 3, Super Castlevania IV, Simcity, and Actraiser.  Nowadays, I may not place it so highly, but at the time, it really consumed me.

As versions go, I have replayed this story too many times.  FF IV Advance, FF IV on Nintendo DS, and the PSP FF IV Complete with the After Years.  After Years felt like a tedious after-thought.  

But yes, Rank A for Final Fantasy II, SNES.

[excelsior]

Week 14 - Tiny Toon Adventure's: Buster Busts Loose


  

It's just like a real cartoon only you're the main character! Buster Busts loose was one of a number of Konami's Tiny Toon games, with this being the only platformer entry for the SNES. It landed in later 1992 to mid 1993.

But be warned. Accept the role of Buster Bunny, and your tail will be on the line against Calamity Coyote, Elmyra, Dizzy Devil, Dr. Gene Splicer, Montana Max and gazillions of other 16 bit bullies craving a pot of Hasenpfeffer stew. Gulp!

Only you can stop those pesky pranksters from getting the jump on your pal Buster Bunny. But it won't be cake, Jake! You'll have to use Buster's all new Spin Kick and Mad Dash to bust through ACME Looniversity's toughest classes. If you pass that test, you'll hop aboard a Wild West Train Ride. Then explore a spooky Monster Mansion. Play in a far-out Foot Game. Bounce through an aerial Sky Jinx in search of stratospheric treasures. And blast-off on a Babs Bunny (no relation!) rescure mission that's totally spaced-out.

Ready to fork over the bucks, Buster? Well hang on your ears - there's more! Between each level are five subgames, including Furrball's Championship Squash, Hungry Boy Hamton and Plucky Duck's Go-Go Bingo. SO ACTUALLY IT'S LIKE ELEVEN GAMES IN ONE! And we haven't even mentioned the Pinball Wizardry, Acme Anvils and Icky Tricky Sticky Traps that'll make you feel like you're in an actual cartoon.

Wow! To make it through all that Buster better have a lucky bunny's foot. Or else you'll be the one getting stewed!

  

  

[excelsior]

Tiny Toon Adventures was a game we rented or borrowed a great deal as kids, only owning it a good deal later. It was an easy pick up and play that could be sped through in a couple of hours. It's not unlike The Magical Quest in that regard although the visuals used a more bright cartoonish colour palette for Konami's game. The visual style is complimented by the gameplay with mini games and exaggerated platforming which allows you to pick up speed and run up walls; these elements combine to give a good representation of the cartoon. Expected characters show up and are created just as expressively as Buster.

The game is hard to grade for me. It comes behind the very best SNES platformers such as Super Mario World and there's a noticeable gap between them, but at the same time I can't think of a better licensed platformer and I certainly prefer it to The Magical Quest. 

Ranking - B

[vnisanian2001]

The Genesis version (which clearly meant to be a take on Super Mario World) was a better game.

[spanky]

I like this game quite a bit. It looks incredible, has a fun dash mechanic and has a somewhat unique for it's era setpiece based level design (the train chase, the football level etc). The bonus games are a nice touch and the game is legitimately pretty tough on the hard difficulty.

This is actually an A for me, one of the best hop n bop style platformers on the system. I've played the Genesis version several times and always found it underwhelming by comparison.

[dsparil]

I can't rate this very highly. The major positive is the graphics which make good use of the SNES's capabilities. On the other hand, I've never been impressed with the core platforming and the super finicky jump attack. The mini-games also fall fairly flat for me, and I don't find them particularly fun. I loved the show and watched it from day one of whenever it was in my area, but I didn't play this for the first time until quite a bit later so it's also lacking in nostalgia for me. The Genesis game is more of a typical licensed product and looks good too, but the physics feel very off to me so I don't find it very fun.

C

[ommadawnyawn2]

This one was kind of a chore to play through. It's like other failed attempts at Sonic clones, it doesn't really work because the lack of a ball form and the lower res. Besides that this also has some control and hit detection issues, plus the overly limited continues. That said the audiovisuals and variation are quite good.
It looks better than the MD game but otherwise I prefer that game.

D.

[personman]

I had to go install this on my 3DS just now. I think I got this for one of my birthdays and I don't think I ever beat it. The damn football stage always ate up all my continues if I didn't get done in by the annoying second stage with the train part. Just beat it now and had a better time of it, the last stage being a Star Wars parody was like the most 90's thing ever and the stage design ends up pretty decent. The sound and visuals are really superb too particularly Buster's animations. They're adorable and butter smooth. I feel like they should have given him costumes for a couple of the stages, especially the final one.

The weird jump attack can be really finnicky, as can the dash. Both just seemed to want to cancel out of each other randomly which became a problem for parts relying on the dash but I didn't find it held me back too much and the attack is far better served to extending your jumps. Even the football stage while I still don't care for due to the short draw distance I found tolerable, helped that I found you could do a slide move that I never knew about, trying to catch a pass though felt impossible however.

It's nothing amazing but its solid, and has a ton of charm to spare. While some parts are a bit tough I could actually see this being a decent game for someone getting started on games.

I'd give it a C+ if that counts for anything.

I want to go and listen to a retrospective about the show or pour over a wiki now. Its weird soon as I heard the main theme song I suddenly remembered seeing Tiny Toons everywhere growing up. Heard that song all over the place and toys lined up on the shelves but I don't think I ever sat down and watched a single episode of it. Or at least I don't remember doing so. Huh, seemed so popular and all over the place back then surprised it slipped past me and I never hear about it anymore at all. Wonder if it was any good.

[spanky]

People are being harder on this one than I thought!

personman

I watched the show a lot as a kid and I really can't remember much about it either. I probably spent more time playing the games. I thought the core concept of younger analogues of WB cartoon characters being taught by the classic characters was a cool idea but the show never really lived up to that potential.

I remember there were a lot of pop culture jokes that I didn't get plus one episode where they go to Washington DC that was loaded with political gags that flew over my head. I remember one really painfully bad episode that was a parody of An American Tail but with fleas. The show also had some really inconsistent animation and character designs. The (straight to VHS I think?) movie was pretty good though. I think it's successor, Animaniacs was a lot better.

[windfisch]

Don't have much of an opinion on Sim City and Final Fantasy IV. But Super R-Type? It's heavily flawed for sure: no checkpoints and drastic slowdowns drag it down quite a bit. But at the end of the day it's still R-Type, retaining just enough of the series' energy to warrant a C rating.

Konami's Tiny Toons games show how much imagination used to be in that company at that time. Each console got their tailor-made Tiny Toon games and each of these were quality titles. The Game Boy games, the first one in particular, hold a special place in my heart. That said, Buster Busts Loose still manages to stand out: While the NES and GB games were pretty much Mario clones and the Mega Drive game did add some Sonic elements, the SNES game not only did bring some fresh dash and backflip mechanics to he table, but also managed to have each stage look, sound and play totally unique (I adore the "set piece"-design approach), displaying the same kind of desing philosophy most Treasure games are known for (even though I couldn't find a direct Treasure link). It also sounds and looks fantastic! And for all the frustration it may bring with adjusting to its mechanics, the sheer amount of creativity more than makes up for it: Fookin' A!

edit: The show itself is just fine in hindsight. Animaniacs was indeed the more polished show. But Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation still remains a family classic! I remember my dad renting that cassete alongside a VHS player (we didn't even have our own at the time). Some of the movie's lines still get quoted by me and my siblings from time to time: "Pop Goes the Weasel."